"Making Waves"

An Eyeshield 21 fan fiction by the butler

Kyoshin Poseidon, Mizumachi and Kakei pairing (look out, boyluv fluff!).

No spoilers. Vaguely set in the summer, probably, to allow for them to actually enjoy the trip to the beach. Mizumachi a bit OOC because his remarks ain't so cutting as they should be.

Disclaimer: the author makes no claim of ownership over the characters herein portrayed in a work of fan fiction. They belong to the creative universe of Eyeshield 21, which in turn belongs to its creator and illustrator.

The Mizumachi impromptu strip shows were getting more and more frequent.

Someone, it might have been the Poseidon manager, remarked that the tall blond only ever did his impromptu strip shows whenever Kakei-kun was around. Upon hearing this, Kakei had the unfortunate accident of swallowing his tea through the wrong hole, making him have the wretched experience of drowning on land as he felt the liquid burn his nostrils. His ever-present self-declared disciples were quick to come to his aid, ultimately failing to do so when they fell into squabbling with each other instead. Excusing himself, Kakei beat a hasty retreat towards the boy's toilet, washing his face and patting it a few times to take off the look of incredulity that seemed to have taken root on his features.

When he got back to his friends, Mizumachi was already there, waving cheerfully at his approaching figure. For the first time Kakei had the gut-wrenching feeling of wanting to run away.

Mizumachi had taken to practicing with the cheering squad every now and then, much to Kakei's consternation. Having to run after the lineman in a cheerleader outfit (because nowadays Mizumachi didn't give up to Kakei without some kind of fight) and dragging him off the field to the cheers and jeers of the whole cheering squad was asking too much of Kakei, he thinks. It was unreasonable of the cheering squad to actually allow Mizumachi in their practices, and Kakei was tempted to think that they did so just to annoy him.

He was pretty sure he heard some catcalls from the squad as well, and he didn't want to think about that. Not while dragging a laughing Mizumachi in a skirt towards the team locker room. It never occurred to Kakei to ask himself how come he's the only one who ever had to do it, either.

"Kakei-kun, ya need to loosen up a bit."

Was the cheerful greeting Mizumachi gave Kakei one morning on their way to school. Kakei felt as if he just walked into a conversation that the other boy was having before he arrived, since the greeting came out of nowhere. He turned to look at the blond, who grinned and pointed at his face in return.

"That's what I mean. You're too placid, like a lake or something."

Kakei raised an eyebrow, He definitely missed a huge chunk of this conversation, that or Mizumachi was off into non sequiturs again.

"'S no fun, being all calm all the time. Sometimes ya gotta have waves, you know? Like the sea. Say, we haven't gone to the beach in a long while! Ooh, I haven't eaten the snow cones they sell there for a long while either…"

Kakei tuned out for some moments as Mizumachi started getting off tangent. It would be seconds more before the easily excitable boy returned to the topic he began with. Kakei realized he tuned out for too long when he missed the steady chatter, looked to his left and saw Mizumachi pouting (there wasn't anything else to call the look on Mizumachi's face).

"Oi, you listening to me? Che, you're doing that again aren't you? That turning-Mizumachi-off thing. That ain't nice. I've half a mind to be offended…"

"I'm sorry."

"Heh, got you! Wasn't really serious about being offended! Anyway, let's go to the beach this weekend, alright?"

When Kakei nodded his consent, Mizumachi threw an arm around the silent boy's shoulder and gave him a kind of a half-hug.

"It's a date then!"

Mizumachi gave a hearty laugh when Kakei stumbled as he seemed to suddenly lose his footing.

He should've been practicing instead, Kakei berated himself inwardly. The tips of his ears fast turning pink (the heat at the beach had nothing to do with it), he kept his face well out of Mizumachi's vision as the latter happily chattered away as he applied lotion on Kakei's back. It certainly was taking the blond a long time.

"Mizumachi."

"Yep?"

"What…"

"Hold still Kakei, or I'll spell it wrong."

"WHAT?"

"There! All finished!"

"What is? Oi, Mizumachi! What did you write on my back?"

"I'll tell you if you beat me to that floating thingy! Last one there is a rotten egg!"

And, laughing, Mizumachi ran towards the water, leaving Kakei no other choice but to follow. Of course, Mizumachi beat him to the "floating thingy" and all the other races after that. Getting home, Kakei immediately took off his shirt and tried to see his back from the mirror in his room. The heat from Kakei's face would have been enough to power an entire street when he saw the tan lines on his back read his and Mizumachi's name with a line in between and a triangle on top of it (signifying an umbrella), with two hearts drawn on the side for good measure.

He'd have to find a way of changing in the locker rooms without anyone noticing that on his back come tomorrow. Knowing Mizumachi though, Kakei's chances of keeping this a secret is slim to none. Face still bright red, Kakei tried to grimace at the reflection on the mirror.

He should have been angry. Instead, there was a funny, fluttering feeling at the base of his stomach. He didn't want to think what that was about and yet…

Getting home, Mizumachi could not take off the smirk on his face.

He couldn't be any clearer than that, he figured, writing that on Kakei's back.

Jumping out of his clothes in an instant, Mizumachi headed straight to the bathroom. There are only two scenarios, he thinks, for tomorrow: either Kakei ignores him in anger, or Kakei ignores him in embarrassment. He's pretty sure it'd be the second one. Well, Mizumachi thinks as he smirked at his reflection on the mirror above the sink, since its cheering practice tomorrow, Kakei would be hard put to ignore him anyway.

Kobanzame-sempai would have loved to stare and goggle at the two freshmen before him, but since one of those freshmen is Kakei-san, and the other is Mizumachi-kouhai, he didn't. Somebody would be bound to do it anyway and perhaps that somebody would ask as well. He'd rather not be the focus of Kakei-san's glare, that's for sure.

"Um, Kakei-sama, what… what are you, uh, doing with Mizumachi?"

Kakei had to settle for simply glaring at Ohina, who already had tears streaming down his face, since Mizumachi beat him to the quick.

"He's holding my hand! Isn't it great?"

Stopping in his tracks, Kakei closed his eyes for a moment to compose himself before turning around to glare at the beaming blond. The glare, as usual, had no effect on Mizumachi at all and only served to make the blond's smile become broader and for his hand to squeeze Kakei's harder. Kakei internally panicked as he felt his glare and anger crumble at the onslaught of happiness pouring out of the taller boy. He managed to give Mizumachi a slightly disapproving look in the end, at least.

"Only because you wouldn't leave the cheering squad practice until I agreed to, and if I let go of you now, you'd go running back to the cheering squad, and then I'd have to fetch you again."

"Hai, hai, Kakei-kun!"

Choosing not to acknowledge the patronizing edge in Mizumachi's reply, Kakei sighed and continued dragging the other freshman towards the amefuto club room. Laughing, Mizumachi impishly asked out loud whether Kakei showed everybody what was written on his back yet.

Kobanzame-sempai was stunned to see Kakei walk right into the closed door as if he didn't see it at all, given how he was staring straight ahead of him all the time. This made him curious as to what exactly was written on Kakei's back. Looking around and seeing the thoughtful looks on everyone's faces, even Ohina's, he correctly guessed that everyone else would be stealing a glance at Kakei's back later after practice, that is if Kakei would let his guard down enough for any of them to actually succeed in doing so.

Hopefully Mizumachi would be on everyone else's side, because then, Kobanzame-sempai is sure, seeing Kakei's back would be a certainty.

"What exactly were you thinking, writing that on my back?"

Kakei hissed at Mizumachi once they were in the confines of the locker room, lowering his voice lest anyone would overhear. Mizumachi shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

"Making waves."

"… what?"

"Ya know, making waves." Mizumachi made wave motions with his hands as if to help Kakei understand better. The stoic boy impatiently swatted at the gesturing hands. "Che, you don't remember do you? When I said you're too placid, ya know, when I asked you out."

"Asked me… what?"

"I told you it was a date, didn't I?"

Turning around abruptly so that Mizumachi won't see him blushing, Kakei pretended to look for something, anything, inside his locker (which was, conveniently, right behind him). For a moment Kakei was tempted to deny it, but in the end he realized it wouldn't really be any use against Mizumachi.

"Yes. Yes you did. I didn't think you were serious."

"I was."

"A rare occurrence."

"'Che, you should work on your jokes as well."

Giving up on hiding from Mizumachi, Kakei sits down on a nearby bench and gestures for the other boy to sit beside him. The blond genially follows.

"And did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Make waves."

"Heh? I dunno…" Mizumachi stares at the ceiling as Kakei minutely inspects his shoes. "… you tell me. I mean, I couldn't be any clear than that." He smiles and playfully punches Kakei's arm. "You're pretty dense, ya know? If I didn't spell it out for you like that you'd probably not get it at all. I had to get the cheering squad to help me and stuff. Oh! You know those outfits they wear? It's really tight! I mean, right across the chest, well I don't have what they have but…"

Kakei tunes out and waits for the Mizumachi train of thought to get to the last station before genuinely listening again.

"…and, hints don't really work with you 'coz, I dunno, you don't want to see them as hints I guess."

"You could have just told me."

"Huh? And you'd take me seriously?"

Kakei bit his lip. Mizumachi, despite the air-head blond act he does so well, is a keen observer. Kakei would have dismissed any 'confessions' from the blond boy as mere pranks, or tasteless jokes, rather than take Mizumachi seriously. It would have been terribly presumptuous on Kakei's part, anyway.

"Besides, 's more fun this way."

Looking up to Mizumachi's grinning face, Kakei couldn't help but nod his head in agreement, a smile tugging at his own lips as he did.

Kobanzame-sempai and the rest of the amefuto team were destined to be disappointed when, after practice, Mizumachi locked the locker room door after Kakei went in and stood before it, blocking anyone who would be stupid enough to try to get in.

It isn't his style, Mizumachi mused as he stood there attempting to glare at the rest of the amefuto team and fail miserably, but Kakei insisted they keep it quiet for a while and right now, Mizumachi would have done anything Kakei asked him to.

As long as Kakei would let him keep making waves, he would.

end.